Away From Home
by ccrizon
Summary: Lily Evans has just graduated from Hogwarts and she's getting ready to go on her annual family camping trip for the weekend. However, when they're just about to leave, something happens that may change her plans for the rest of the summe
1. Chapter 1  The Visitor

**Chapter One – The Visitor**

The past year for Lily Evans was more of a shock to her. Of course she enjoyed her last year in Hogwarts, however there were various unexpected events that occurred, both good and bad.

In the previous summer, she was selected as head girl, a position she strived for since first year. She was quite proud of herself when she received her owl letter from Hogwarts, bearing the shiny badge she'd wanted. The selection for head boy, however, was more of a surprise to Lily (and to most of their year). James Potter had been known to the most prominent bully, prankster, arrogant quidditch player Hogwarts had ever seen. However, even with his past record, he achieved to gain the title of head boy. Lily had to admit that James Potter did smarten up his act and lessened his irritating and rude behavior.

But James Potter being head boy was not the most odd and troublesome episode of the year, it was the rumors and evidence that showed the rise of Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard Birtain has ever seen. There were several muggle disappearances which definitely made Lily worry for her own family. It was the worst feeling she had ever experienced, that there was a great possibility that her family was the next to disappear. Thankfully, last Easter break was not the final time she would see them. In fact, they were all preparing for their weekend camping trip for the summer.

"Why does Vernon have to go?" complained Lily, "I mean, he's not even in our family yet, is he? And this is supposed to be our annual _family _camping trip."

"We might as well call him family, Lily," said her mother, "they will be getting married in a month's time."

"Oh alright, fine. I'll drop it."

Her mother looked at her and smiled saying, "I know this is difficult for you hon, but the camping trip may be the time to make amends with your sister and get along with your soon to be brother-in-law."

Lily smiled feebly at her mother. She knew that those two objectives were very nearly impossible, considering her sister's and her husband's view on her lot.

"Where is she anyway?" asked Lily

"Petunia? Oh, yes, she went with Vernon to do some last minute grocery shopping for tonight," said her mother, "and your father is outside setting up the camper. So you better finish up your packing before he loads the car with our backpacks."

And with that Lily went upstairs to her room to do what her mother told her to do. She packed all her essentials, went to the bathroom for her toiletries and finished off by packing the _Auror Guidebook _for light reading. She passed her mother, counting money on the kitchen island, and placed her backpack on the floor where all the other bags were. The moment she put her bag down the doorbell rang.

"Must be Petunia and Vernon, I'll go help them unload the car," said her mum.

As her mother went to answer the door, she heard a voice familiar to her, but not one that she would suspect of coming to her muggle home.

"Lily?" called her mother, "there's a handsome young man outside our door who claims to know you from school, should I invite hi-"

But Lily had already reached the door before her mother finished her sentence. "Potter? What are you doing here?"

Stood before her was her partner in school, James Potter. He obviously did not belong in the muggle world with his cloak around his neck. Lily gave a small smile. Potter was still the same, his dark hair sticking up in every direction possible. It was the oddest thing to see him standing outside their doorway.

"I have to talk to you," said James, running a hand through his unruly hair, "Dumbledore sent me to give you a message."

"Dumbledore?"

"Well, er yeah. And it's not exactly the most pleasant news either."

"Why don't you come in Mr. Potter," said Lily's mother, "you two can talk in the kitchen while I double check if we left anything upstairs. Oh and Lily, your sister should come home in a few minutes and by then we'll be able to hit the road."

"Alright, mum," said Lily, leading Potter into the kitchen.

"I can see where you got your freckles from. Your mum has them too. Although, what still makes me wonder is where you got your red hair from."

"Actually, I believe I got it from my grandmother. Apparently she had red hair as well." Lily said, "so do you want anything to drink? You must be hot in that cloak of yours."

Potter looked at her and smirked, "Lily Evans calling me hot in my cloak? This must be a dream."

"Haven't changed a bit have you?" said Lily shaking her head while smiling, "and you know what I mean."

"Alright, I'll just have water then," Potter laughed taking off his cloak and placed it on his chair, "going on a trip, I see," he continued, nodding to the bags on the floor.

"Yeah, it'll be our last annual family camping trip before my sister gets married."

"Who, Petunia? Hm, so she did decide to marry that bloke you told me about, Vincent was it? Personally, how you described him, he sounded arrogant, horrid and boring."

"Vernon. Well, I guess I accidently described you."

"Me? Arrogant, horrid and boring?" Potter said in a mock hurt tone, "I am most definitely not arrogant, horrid, and boring. I am the finest, most handsome quidditch chaser Hogwarts has ever seen." Lily raised her eyebrows and finally Potter added, "Okay fine, maybe I'm a tad bit arrogant, but I only speak the truth," again Lily raised her eyebrows, "fine, most of the time I speak the truth. Happy?"

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes as she gave him his glass of water. "And what have you been doing for the past two weeks after leaving Hogwarts?"

"Thanks. Sirius, Remus, Peter and I have actually got some sort of a mission."

"Really?"

"Yup. Although, it's not exactly a mission, but I like to call it one because it makes it sound kick-ass."

"Of course you do."

"Ha-ha, very funny. Anyway, I'm supposed to spread the word. And that's why I'm here, to tell you what Dumbledore wants to say to you and to other witches and wizards."

"Okay, go ahead."

"Dumbledore sent me, as I've already mentioned. And also, as you already know Voldemort has been rising to power throughout the year and Dumbledore is recruiting people for the Order of the Phoenix. It's a force against Voldemort and his death eaters. So Dumbledore sent me to spread the message to anyone who he thinks would want to join and also if I knew anyone else who would want to. And therefore, I came to you. But not to only just convince you to join, but also to warn you. Look, Evans, these disappearances are a sign that we are going to head into dark times, I just know it. You must take precautions and protect yourself and your family. He could be targeting you because of your blood. And I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I appreciate your concern Potter, but I can assure you that I am aware of the muggle disappearances that have been going around recently. And I will protect my family to the best of my ability if the worst should happen," reassured Lily, "and as for the Order, I have heard of rumors about it. And I've already been considering to join, but I need to protect my family before I can. I would need to put up spells and enchantments around the house before I sign up to ensure their safety. So, I'll do that first thing I come home from our camping trip. I would also have to put protection around our campsite as well, I suppose."

Potter smiled and got up, he said, "I knew I didn't need to come here and persuade you to come. But I still wanted to make sure. Well, I better be off now, I'm going to meet Sirius in the Leaky Cauldron at 5:00 and besides, you're going to go on a camping trip for the weekend."

"Mhm, and it sure will be fun," Lily said with heavy sarcasm.

"What? Don't you like family vacations?"

"My soon to be brother-in-law is coming along, and he isn't that tolerable. I have no idea what Petu-" Both Lily and James turned their heads to the source of the sound which sounded as if something heavy fell, "It sounded like it came from the garage. Dad? Are you okay?" There was no answer.

Through the kitchen window, Lily saw the end of a cloak flowing behind the garage. This can't be good Lily thought as she took out her wand. She saw Potter do the same from her peripheral vision. The door bell rang. Both Lily and James looked at each other with worried looks. _He must have also seen the cloak too _Lily thought. At that moment she heard her mother ask if it was Petunia while opening the door.

"MUM NO!"

Lily saw a flash of green and to her horror, a thump, similar to the thud near the garage, followed. She couldn't think straight, she couldn't move, she didn't want to. There was the unavoidable fact that both her parents were-

"EVANS! MOVE!"

Instinctively Lily ducked and got her head back together. There were definitely death eaters in the house and they were attacking. James was already dueling one of the two. And Lily was sitting behind the island cowering from them? Immediately she stood up and fired hex after hex at the other hooded wizard. Lily and James were dueling for their lives. There was total chaos inside the Evans household, appliances flying everywhere, and chunks of the wall being blasted. The tap in the sink had blasted and water was now being sprayed everywhere. Lily was soaked and she couldn't see properly with all the water coming at her. She was now shooting random spells at her attacker when suddenly the cabinet door was wrenched from its hinges and hit her on the side of her face. She fell to the ground seeing stars around her.

"Evans!" Potter panted while trying to hit his attacker, "We need to apparate out of here! I need to distract them and then we apparate!"

Lily nodded. But Potter didn't wait to hear for her confirmation, he pointed his wand to the couch and made it fly into the death eater. With a moment's distraction, the death eater that Lily was dueling looked at his friend and with all her strength Lily shot a stunning spell and hit im square in the chest. She jumped around the island with the little energy she had left, grabbed the cooler and nearest bag. Lily then seized the money lying on the table just in case and grasped for Potter's hand to apparate to safety.

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><p><strong>Hello! I hope you enjoyed my first chapter of my first story. Please Review and I promise that the next chapter will be longer :) Thank you!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2  Away From Home

Thank you for the postive feedback! I hope i'll be able to keep up with a consistent gap for my posts. This chapter is a bit longer and has a bit of fluff in the end :) Hope you enjoy!

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><p><strong>Chapter Two - Away From Home<strong>

Where were they? James circled the place observing his surroundings. There were trees everywhere, but not like the forbidden forest. The trees were thinner and more spaced apart. And there was a small road slicing its way through the woods. On his side of the road all were trees behind him with a few bushes. On the other side was a small cabin with a bar sticking out to the side, as if making a barrier. Furthermore, there was a sign that read _Evergreen _beside the cabin. On his far right, he could make out a tiny bunch of buildings. _Perhaps it's a small muggle town_, he thought.

"Lily?" James asked "Where did you g-"He turned and saw her staggering to get behind a tree on his left. Immediately he ran toward her and heard her mumbling to herself

"They're dead… all my fault. They're dead," she said in a mantra

"Lily, it's not your… of course it's not your fault. You couldn't have known that that was going to happen, no one could."

Lily looked up at him with her green eyes out of focus. He could see her cheek bruised from the brawl they just fought a few moments ago starting to turn black and blue. Her hair sticking to her face as was her clothes matted to her body. "You don't understand," was all she said.

James went toward her to comfort her, but with one touch on her shoulder she cracked. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" she yelled as she wacked James' arm away from her, "YOU'RE PARENTS AREN'T DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU AREN'T THE ONE WHO DIDN'T PUT PROTECTION SPELLS AROUND YOUR HOUSE TO PROTECT THE ONES YOU LOVE! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW…" she panted as she realized to her horror that she forgot someone. "Petunia. Oh my god, Petunia's going to be arriving any minute now! What if they're still there at the house? We have to go back. We have to go back!"

"NO! Lily, you mustn't!" he said struggling to keep her still, "It's too dangerous! You're sister must have brains, even if you say she doesn't. No one would go into an almost destroyed house! We just have to hope that she doesn't go in and take refuge in her fiancé's home. It's too dangerous for us to get sighted anywhere in the wizarding world. We need to stay low key for the time being."

She finally stopped struggling to sit down on the ground full of broken twigs and sob. She threw the backpack and cooler on the ground and slammed the muggle money into James' hand. "Here, do something with it. I doubt that that will cover a camping site in Evergreen and we don't even have a ruddy tent so we can't camp there. "She put her elbows on her knees and placed her head in her hands. James pocketed the money, sighed and sat down to look inside their belongings.

The cooler was filled with 7 water bottles, he counted. This stock would probably last them for a few days which meant that they needed to find a water source as well. He moved to the backpack and realized that Lily took her parents' backpack. Both her father and mother's clothes were in here and their toothbrushes. After rummaging through the bags James went to the tree where Lily was sitting and sat with her in silence

The sun was slowly setting and James felt that it was time to find a place to sleep in. He elbowed Lily gently, whose head was still in her hands. "Lily," he said, "we better make a move, the sun is setting and we still need to find some shelter for tonight."

"I suppose you're right," Lily said as she stood up brushing off dried leaves that stuck to her "I believe there's a bed and breakfast up there beside the lake." She pointed towards the small muggle town James took note of earlier before.

"Lead the way."

Walking up the road was a silent journey and Lily was thankful for it. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. After a year of worrying and panicking for her family, it finally came true. She witnessed it right in front of her own eyes. It was just the numbness of the shock that she could remember. And soon after they disapparated her whole body felt regret.

We should have left a day earlier. I should have put the protective enchantments first. Now they're dead. What will Petunia think? What is she doing now? Is she even safe? _It's all my fault, it's all my fault._ A tear silently fell from her eye and she furiously wiped it off. She was angry, she was fuming. She hated everything, her situation, her surroundings, the person behind her, the world, but mostly herself. _It's all my fault_.

The trees were thinning while bushes took their place. Soon, he saw glistening waters to his right and thought that this the lake Lily was talking about. If he was right, they should be close to it now, James thought. He didn't really know what a "bed and breakfast" was, but he didn't want to pester Lily about it either. She had too much to deal with. If truth be told, James didn't know how to deal with this kind of situation. Was he supposed to ask her how she was feeling? But he already knew the answer to that, she was depressed. The closest encounter he faced was his grandfather's death three years ago. No, he hadn't witnessed his death, but it still affected James. He wanted space at the time, so that's what he'll give her.

Finally, James saw a sign that said _Bed and Breakfast _on the porch of a house on the other side of the street. It was a rather large house. It was made of red brick and it had a lovely flowerbed underneath the two windows on either side of the door. And surely enough, Lily crossed the road and began climbing up the stairs leading to the door. She opened the door and walked in.

A plump woman with graying brown hair came around the corner and with a smile ready to greet customers. However, as she took a glimpse of them, her grin dropped. It was then that James realized what they must have looked like. They were bruised, clothed in damp and odd clothing, and had unkempt hair. _No, they didn't seem suspicious at all _James thought sarcastically as he took off his cloak to seem less conspicuous.

But the obvious hesitation of the woman did not stop Lily from asking her how many nights the money they had could afford. The woman looked at her suspiciously but told her that it would do for 2 nights. And with that, she led them upstairs and showed them their room. From the little foyer they were in, He could see the red living room straight ahead with couches and a fireplace and a kitchen to the left with four different twin tables lined up on the wall. There was a step dividing the living room from the kitchen.

The little lady led them to their room up the carpeted stairs. When they opened it, all James could register was white. White walls, white floor, white furniture, and a white queen sized bed. She also directed them to their own bathroom attached to their room, which was also very white, and gave them their towels. When the lady left them, James went towards the bed, pulled off the covers and a pillow and laid them on the floor.

"No James," Lily said as she tried to stop him, "I'll sleep on the floor. You can take the bed."

"It's okay, I'm fine here on the ground. It's carpet so it won't hurt as much. Besides, I believe you are the one who needs the bed tonight."

Lily smiled at him, her way of thanking him without words. They quickly freshened up in the bathroom room and went straight towards bed. James put his head down and closed his eyes. He could faintly hear someone crying softly from above him before the world went black.

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><p>All he could see was red behind his closed eyes. Groggily, James woke up and stretched his arms wide. He took a good look around from the ground. Lily's bed was empty, but there was definitely evidence that someone slept in it. The white sheets were sprawled everywhere. Again, James rubbed his eyes and stood up, making his way to the bathroom slowly.<p>

James took a quick shower and brushed his teeth with the toiletries provided by the bed and breakfast place. As he did, he thought of the previous day's events. He was worried for Lily, never had he seen her so broken and fragile. And yet, he does not know how to comfort her. He remembered her hair going wild all over her tear stained face. All he could do now was imagine how horrible she must feel.

On the run from Voldemort, witnessing her parents' death and her sister's endangered safety was what she had to cope with. And he should probably add in dealing with with himself. At this, he smiled to himself remembering Lily and his growing friendship during the school year. She hated, despised, loathed him before seventh year. James couldn't blame her though, now that he thought of it. He was a really big arrogant person, especially in fifth year. He shuddered at the thought of his younger ignorant self. Nothing to worry though, he changed, especially for her.

After dressing up, James hurried downstairs to eat some breakfast. He was starving. The tables on the kitchen were decorated with one blue aster flower in each little vase placed in the middle. But Lily was not sitting there as he expected. The woman who owned the house turned around from her dishes to look at him. He could still see the dislike in her face when she looked at him.

"Name is Beatrice," the graying lady said, "you can toast yourself some bread." She nodded towards the cut loaves of bread on one of the tables, "there's some butter and some jam beside it too if you like. And the toaster is right behind you."

"Thanks," James said. But the problem was he had no idea what a toaster was. He looked behind him and saw a white box with two open slits on top with a dial on the front. James didn't want to risk it and decided to just eat the bread with some butter. "Sorry, er, Beatrice, do you happen to know what time it is?"

"It's ten o'clock now," she said without turning to look at him

"And do you happen to know where my … the girl that was with me, do you know where she is?"

"Sorry, I've got 5 bedrooms in this house, all occupied at the moment. I can't remember who's with who anymore," she said with a little annoyance in her voice.

"We came here last night, she's about this tall," James said indicating her height by putting his hand just below his ear, "red hair.."

"The red head? She came down an hour ago. I think she said that she was going for a walk to the lake."

She went alone? Is she crazy? James mumbled his thanks and hurried out the door with his buttered bread in one hand and crossed the street. All thoughts of how rude the lady was vanished from his head. What if she was ambushed by more death eaters? She really is crazy if she didn't think of that. James ran toward the direction where they came from last night. The lake was bound to be close by, he remembered that.

James rushed down the road until he saw a body of water on his left. There was a trail that led to the shore of the lake, he saw. And he immediately ran down the trail until he saw a woman standing, wading in the water beside a worn little dock.

Her hair was flying behind her from the wind. And her pants were rolled up to her knees to avoid them being soaked by the water. She turned around instantly at the sound of running feet and sent red sparks from her wand in James direction.

The reflexes James gained from quidditch helped him dodge the incoming spell as he ducked from the red light. He looked behind him and saw a burnt hole in a leaf of a bush.

"You frightened me! I thought you were some other death eater by the way you were running!"

"_I _scared _you_? You were the one who ran away without telling me! What if it was a death eater that got to you before I did? _You _were the one who scared _me_!"

He was walking toward Lily as he ranted at her. As James drew nearer, he could see her eyes, puffy and red from crying the previous night with distinctive dark bruises all around her face. Guilt welled up him for shouting at her, he was inconsiderate.

"Sorry, what I meant to say was that I was worried for you when I heard that you left the house without me." James said when he reached the dock. Lily's shoes were placed close to her and James took off his own shoes, rolled his pants up, and sat down on the dock putting his feet into the water itself.

"James, you saw me back there. I was alert and I shot a good stunning spell at you. I could've handled a death eater."

"Yeah, sure, maybe if there was only one."

Lily raised her eyebrows, "only one? You underestimate me Potter. I can manage a dozen death eaters alone."

"Really? And if I do remember correctly, wasn't your Defence Against the Dark Arts mark only an E?" James said teasingly.

"An E is not bad!"

"However, it is not as good as an O. And I do believe that that was the mark I received," James said smugly, smirking at Lily as he said so. He knew that it bothered her that James got a better mark than her. He loved to tease her about it. "AHH!"

Water splashed on him and got his entire front wet. He then heard a loud laughter coming from infront of him. James raised his eyebrows, "so this is how you want to play, is it?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the laughter stopped and she started to interject, "No wait, James don't. Don't you da-"

But James didn't wait to let her finish her sentence. He started kicking at the water to make big splashes that could drench someone if they were within its radius. It was his turn to laugh as Lily screamed with laughter trying to run away from the water. When suddenly James heard her gasp and there was silence.

He stopped kicking and looked around, "Lily?" She was nowhere to be seen. There were only big ripples left in the water from where he stopped kicking. All of a sudden a hand shot out from underneath and pulled him into the water.

Coldness engulfed him as he entered the lake. James struggled to get back to the surface to breathe. Once his head hit the surface once more, he gasped for breath instinctively and heard the same laughter he heard a minute ago. Panting, James said, "I'm going to kill you."

"I highly doubt that you will," Lily pointed out, still laughing at him, "I've already won!"

"Oh, so now there's a winner and a loser?"

"Well, you did say that we are playing a game. And I have achieved to get you soaked from head to toe. I win!"

"I disagree, you haven't won yet."

James splashed her with more water and the water fight commenced once again. Both were laughing with delight, forgetting of yesterday's incidents and their almost fight just a few minutes before. They were focused on beating each other. What exactly they wanted to win, or rather how? They didn't know, all they did know was that they had to win using water against each other.

Lily tackled James from behind, causing him to fall into the water once more, which in return James drenched Lily further with water. On and on their water fight went until they found each other stuck.

James had cornered Lily on the dock, putting both his hands on the wood on either side of her face. Lily couldn't go anywhere; her back was already hitting the side of the dock. She looked at his smirking face as he grew closer and Lily stood up straight to stand her guard. James' smirk grew bigger at this but when he finally reached close to her, his smile faltered a little.

The space between them was smaller than what they were used to. James looked down at Lily, and Lily looked up at James. The atmosphere had suddenly changed. They could both feel the tension, but they were also unsure of what it was. James could now feel the warmth of Lily's body as they stood still. He took her face in and observed it.

Just like yesterday, strands of red hair were plastered onto her face but with more prominent bruises. He looked into her eyes, they were the brightest green eyes he had ever seen. But they were swollen and pink from the tears it shed yesterday.

"Your lip is bleeding," Lily said as she reached to touch his lips.

James didn't move. He just looked at her with amazement, but Lily felt his gaze and took her hand away quickly. He hadn't realized he wasn't breathing, so he slowly exhaled and laughed, "It was from yesterday, I'm alright though. I think I'm happy now that I've won.

Lily relaxed, feeling relieved he didn't comment on what she just did. She laughed along and replied, "for now, you have. Just wait Potter; I'll get you one day." And with that, all tension was gone.

"I'd like to see that day, Evans" James said still chuckling, heaving himself up to sit on the dock as before. He helped Lily get up as well and they both just sat in silence for a few minutes.

Neither talked for they were both in deep thought. It was a weird moment, James thought and wondered whether she felt it too. The way her fingers felt on his lips… She must have sensed it as well, or she wouldn't have done that. He was glad that he was able to brush her gesture away so casually, it made him nervous and more confused of his feelings for Lily. He thought he could suppress it by being friends, but that moment just made him doubt everything and nonetheless made him perplexed as ever. He did not want to think about it.

As time passed, James looked over to Lily who he also noticed was deep in thought. He had no idea what she was thinking about. Maybe about that moment they had just a few minutes ago, or maybe her parents again. In any case, they needed to dry up and go back to their house. He nudged her gently and she looked at him.

"We should get back to the place, it should be nearly lunch time now."

Slowly, they dried themselves with their wands and slowly walked back to the bed and breakfast place. Silently.


End file.
